Inventor wants opinions on project - Single lever for all gears
Trimble Epic
I know, it will sounds just like all those things that all those
other guys tried, the bear, etc...
I'm working on a project that would allow you to shift through all
the gears on your bike, in order of gear inch ratios, and able to skip
the two unusable gears (big/big, small/small) using one lever that would
control both derail's automatically. I may have to use two levers, just
to allow for shifting up and down, but one would not need to think about
which derail'r to shift to get to the next higher/lower gear. I'd love
to explain just how it would work, but alas, i have no patent yet.
sorry.
The opinions I am looking for are these:
Would you be interested in a device such as this? It would not be
electrical, and would add probably only very little weight. For balance
purposes, the device could be placed nearly anywhere on the bike, I was
planning on putting it (for prototyping) on the water bottle braze-ons on
the down tube.
How would one prefer to control a gadget that could to this? A
grip-shift style shifter would allow one to skip several gears to get
right to the one you want. The thumb trigger ratchet type also seems
popular. as far at the tech is concerned, the type of activation doesn't
really matter.
feel free to discuss this in a thread, or E-mail me directly.
Also, a side note, I would like to meet people who would be
interested in getting in on a project like this.
Tom Ace
Trimble Epic wrote:
> I'm working on a project that would allow you to shift through all
>the gears on your bike, in order of gear inch ratios, and able to skip
>the two unusable gears (big/big, small/small) using one lever that would
>control both derail's automatically.
The shift pattern varies from bicycle to bicycle. Will this device
be configurable, or will it only working with one shifting pattern
(the one it was designed for)?
I imagine many (most?) buyers of bicycles never change their cogs
around and wouldn't mind being locked into one shifting pattern.
But some of us like flexibility. I have much different gearing
on my bike now that I live in San Francisco than I did when I
lived on Long Island where it's flat--not just a wider range,
but a different shifting pattern.
My next observation is, there are times you don't need to go through
all the gears in sequence. If you want to shift to a low gear in
preparation for stopping, you don't need to shift through every gear
in between. It sounds like your device would require that, taking
just a little bit more time than conventional shifting would.
> Would you be interested in a device such as this?
I doubt I'd want one, but that may have nothing to do with the
mass market.
Tom Ace
cr...@best.com
Trimble Epic
In article <3376346F...@best.comX>, cr...@best.comX says...
snip...
> The shift pattern varies from bicycle to bicycle. Will this device
> be configurable, or will it only working with one shifting pattern
> (the one it was designed for)?
> I imagine many (most?) buyers of bicycles never change their cogs
> around and wouldn't mind being locked into one shifting pattern.
> But some of us like flexibility. I have much different gearing
> on my bike now that I live in San Francisco than I did when I
> lived on Long Island where it's flat--not just a wider range,
> but a different shifting pattern.
Well, the design takes this into account. There will be one custom
milled part that would have to be changed when the cassette is changed,
but I would expect users would simply carry a spare of this part with the
cassette. It has been planned for this part to be quickly removed and
replaced as needed. perhaps popping off two small allen bolts, or even I
could just make it slide off with release notches.
The design could allow for customizing the gears to select from.. the
system could be pre-programmed to offer only a few of your lower gears,
and all the mids, and a few highs, or you could just weed out any gear
ratios that are too similar, heck, you could fully customize your hear
ratio slopes, or even make two separate slopes to play with... the
design, (I hope) would allow for all kinds of fiddling like that. try
drawing your dream gear ratio slope, and we could do that.
as for the quickly getting to the remote gears, like coming to a stop, i
have been thinking about this problem, and there are some
possibilities... mostly, i was thinking a grip-shift style interface,
since you can shift past several gears quickly...
come to think of it, it wouldn't be all that hard to build in a manual
mode... would just add a bit more weight... guess i better get working on
the designs for that.. hehe
Thanks for the response, have a great trail...
Christian Beglinger
Trimble Epic (tri...@minn.net) wrote:
: I'm working on a project that would allow you to shift through all
: the gears on your bike, in order of gear inch ratios, and able to skip
: the two unusable gears (big/big, small/small) using one lever that would
: control both derail's automatically. I may have to use two levers, just
A thingy like this is already on the market from a Spanish company (I forgot
the name but can look it up for you, I have a brochure at home and seen
and tried the products at last year's Interbike trade show).
Chris
--
Thomas H. Kunich
In article <MPG.de03c6a3...@news.minn.net>,
Trimble Epic <tri...@minn.net> wrote:
>Well, the design takes this into account. There will be one custom
>milled part that would have to be changed when the cassette is changed,
>but I would expect users would simply carry a spare of this part with the
>cassette. It has been planned for this part to be quickly removed and
>replaced as needed. perhaps popping off two small allen bolts, or even I
>could just make it slide off with release notches.
Hah! That was enough hint. Cams don't work very well unless you hold
very close tolerances. The total motion of the shifting mechanism is
so small that the production tolerances you can expect from most
production methods are too broad to get reliable shifting with that
method. Check out the trouble that American derailleur manufacturers
are having with their products working with Shimano's equipment.
Little guys just can't hold super close tolerances.